It’s hard to believe anyone could weave together a history of all the scientific fields – cosmology, astronomy, paleontology, geology, chemistry, physics and more! – into a compelling narrative. Somehow, Bill Bryson manages this incredible feat! I truly loved the way he ties together the history of science with the stories of the men and women behind the science.
Read the book, you won’t be disappointed!
I loved the movie. Clive Owen and Julia Roberts have great chemistry. The plot and dialogue are fun and engaging and the tone really reminded me of Ocean’s 11.
Watch it!
Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.
The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.
The next day the farmer drove up and said, ‘Sorry Chuck, but I have some bad news, the donkey died.’
Chuck replied, ‘Well, then just give me my money back.’
The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.’
Chuck said, ‘OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.’
The farmer asked, ‘What ya gonna do with a dead donkey?
Chuck said, ‘I’m going to raffle him off.’
The farmer said ‘You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!’
Chuck said, ‘Sure I can. Watch me. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.’
A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, ‘What happened with that dead donkey?’
Chuck said, ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.00.’
The farmer said, ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’
Chuck said, ‘Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.’
Chuck now works for Morgan Stanley.
There is a great series of articles on entrepreneurship in the latest Economist.
Check them out:
http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13216025
“The movement that built the first national democracy was not triggered by an uprising of the masses; nor was it led by intellectual theorists. It was led by entrepreneurial men of means … . In fact, starting a business develops precisely the traits that make democracy work. It requires independence, much effort, and self-discipline – but also the ability to work with others and the recognition that you can only succeed by serving the needs of others.”
- Carl J. Schramm, “The Entrepreneurial Imperative,” p. 161
Over the last 25 years, the fight against HIV has seemed hopeless. Every attempt at a vaccine or cure has failed miserably. Sometimes in science breakthroughs happen inadvertently. An AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia seems to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days despite having ceased all conventional AIDS medication.
Read the full article at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122602394113507555.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
I had the pleasure of studying under Uwe Reinhardt at Princeton. He was by far the best teacher. He gave such entertaining presentations, full of jokes and anecdotes, that he managed to make accounting fun – even at 9 am – an ungodly hour for a college student! I loved working with him so much that I became a teacher assistant for the class.
He recently gave a presentation at a conference for investors in health care. The first part of the presentation is by far the funniest and best description of the financial crisis I came across. Download and read the presentation now! Maybe it’s the geeky economist in me talking, but I found the presentation absolutely hilarious!
For more on Uwe Reinhardt, check out his Wikipedia entry.
Richard Dawkins gave this great speech when accepting the 2006 Rockefeller University Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science.
Listen to Dawkins’ lecture “Queerer than We Can Suppose: The Strangeness of Science”
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